World Blind Union (WBU) letter to all governments:

 

The Marrakech Treaty one year on - many signatures but just one state ratification (thank you India).

 

In June 2013 governments put aside their differences and agreed an historic, ground-breaking treaty to help us end the "book famine" in which just a few percent of books are available in formats we can read. This Treaty must be ratified by at least 20 countries come into force, so that we can actually benefit from it. An un-ratified treaty is just a piece of paper. Below is our plea to all the world's governments to finish the job they started in Marrakech, and allow us to start the job of getting books to people who so badly need them. You can use the letter on the World Blind Union website as a template to write to your own government, asking them to ratify this treaty.

Techshare Middle East is a conference and exhibition discussing accessibility and assistive technology at a national and regional level with international participation. Techshare will take place in Doha on November 4th and 5th, 2014. It will provide a chance to network, share experiences and influence the future of accessibility throughout the Middle East.

 

Mada is the Qatar Assistive Technology Center, based at ictQatar in Doha. Mada was created in 2010 to connect people with disabilities to technology. In the last four years Mada has supported hundreds of people to connect to technology through advice, assessment, provision of equipment and training. In 2014 the Prime Minister of Qatar, launched the new Mada strategy for the coming three years. Techshare Middle East provides a key element of that strategy in promoting technology for access and raising awareness of the needs and potential of people with a disability in Qatar. Submit your proposal now.

The DAISY Consortium is pleased to announce the latest release of Obi, the popular open source navigable audio book production tool that enables the creation of books conforming to accessible EPUB 3 / DAISY 3/ DAISY 2.02 specifications.

 

Version 3.5 presents the capability of producing navigable audio-only EPUB 3 publications. Users can now create a publication conforming to the latest revision of the EPUB 3 audio-only guidelines (http://www.daisy.org/ties/navigable-audio-only-epub3-guidelines). They may also import existing EPUB 3 publications (text-only, navigable audio-only & Media Overlays) for modification or conversion to the EPUB 3 audio-only format.

 

Obi 3.5 includes EPUB 3 Validator to ensure compliance with the EPUB 3 standard, which uses IDPF’s EPUBCheck Validator in the backend. It also introduces the ability to import MP4 files, thereby broadening the scope of Obi users to re-use and re-purpose existing audio content from the web & EPUB 3 publications.

 

This latest release also introduces the features prioritized by DAISY members, which include:

• Capability of importing structure from CSV or delimited text file. These files can be created by entering the structure information of the book in any spreadsheet software, such as Microsoft Excel, and saving it in the CSV or delimited text file format.
• Introduction of audio profiles for one-click configuration of audio preferences; enabling you to configure the behavior of recording and playback to suit your requirements.
• Smart access to various playback options via Playing Options button on transport bar, and new additions to the Recording Options button.
• Framework for integrating audio processing libraries for functions such as amplification, normalization, etc.

Plus many other enhancements & bug fixes.

 

The new Obi comes with Japanese & Arabic language packs, along with updates to the French language pack. Thanks go to the following organizations for the translations:

• Assistive Technology Development Organization (Japan) for Japanese
• Bibliotheca Alexandrina (Egypt) for Arabic
• Association Valentin Haüy (France) for continuously updating the French translations.

Please visit the Obi project area to check out the full list of features and improvements:

http://www.daisy.org/obi/

and download Version 3.5 at

http://www.daisy.org/obi/download/

 

The Obi - Tobi team is committed to enrich Obi with new features. This allows to bring Obi in-sync with the upcoming technologies, as well as serve the members by incorporating the features requested by them. As a result, Obi has become more advanced, convenient and efficient to use.

The DAISY Consortium would like to extend a special thanks to all contributors for their valuable feedback and support.

The 30th Annual International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference, also known as the CSUN Conference, invites submissions of papers for this conference to be held March 2-7, 2015 at the San Diego Manchester Grand Hyatt hotel. The General Call for Papers will be held from August 25, 2014, to October 10, 2014. To begin a submission, visit the General Call for Papers Procedures & Instructions page.

 

For detailed information about submitting a Scientific/Research Track Call for Papers Proposal, visit the Journal Call for Papers page.

The Web Accessibility Training Day at NFB in Baltimore is coming up soon, and seats are filling fast. Don’t miss the opportunity to attend as the speakers are stellar, and the content is immediately useful to anyone dealing with accessibility. You can find the full program at http://nfb.org/web-accessibility-day. Organizers are looking forward to welcoming you at the Jernigan Institute on September 9th. Registration will close on August 29th.

Pyxima, the developer of the Online DAISY platform, is the Premium Sponsor at IFLA's WLIC 2014 Satellite Conference on August 22-23, 2014 in Paris.

 

On Friday, August 22nd, starting at 15:30, they will demonstrate the apps that are currently being used by more than 35.000 reading impaired persons in Norway, Sweden and Belgium. In addition, the new Online DAISY app will soon be added to the App store.

 

On Saturday, August 23rd, starting at 14:30, Pyxima staff will be talking about their project for lending e-books from 300 public libraries in Belgium. In association with this project, they have developed an app for lending e-books from the library and reading these publications online and offline. This app is the first one in the world to combine the Readium open source EPUB reader with the DAISY Online Delivery Protocol.

 

See the full conference program at http://inova.snv.jussieu.fr/ifla-lpd/colloques/colloques/83_programme_en.html.

During the 2014 call for nominations, the ISIF Asia Award program received 93 nominations across the four categories from 16 economies in the Asia Pacific. Each winner received a cash prize of AUD 3,000 to support the continuation of the project or the organization conducting the activities and a travel grant for a project representative to participate at the 9th Internet Governance Forum (Istanbul, Turkey. 2-5 September 2014) to showcase their project, make new professional contacts, and participate in discussions about the future of the Internet.

 

The Associate Member of the DAISY Consortium, Young Power in Social Action, won in the Innovation on learning and localization category, for accessible reading materials for grades 1-10 students with print disability through DAISY standard. YPSA's project in Bangladesh supports students with print and learning disabilities, and low literacy by creating access to DAISY full text and full audio digital books, Braille books and accessible e- course books. Approximately four million Bangladeshis are visually impaired, and around 48 per cent of the population is illiterate or low literate. YPSA, along with the Prime Minister¹s Office, has produced DAISY digital multimedia books for the student of years 1 to 5, which proved accessible and cost effective. YPSA will now extend the range of textbooks to cover the entire secondary level. Congratulations, YPSA!

Date and time: August 7th at 11 Pacific, noon Mountain, 1 Central and 2 PM Eastern

Presenters: Wunji Lau and Dave Schleppenbach from gh, LLC.

 

ReadHear is an e-book reader for Windows and Mac OS with versatile audio features, synchronized highlighting, and support for a wide range of file formats. ReadHear provides built-in support for MathML enabling access to STEM textbooks, coursework, and other educational and professional materials.

 

Presenters will describe the features and functions of the ReadHear software and summarize research studies using ReadHear in educational settings, and explain how the software handles math content.

 

Register for the August 7th webinar on the EASI website.

There are almost two million people in the UK living with sight loss. Over 90% of these individuals have some remaining vision. The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), Full Member of the DAISY Consortium, are developing smart glasses that enable those with very limited vision to make use of what sight remains, increasing confidence and providing richer ways to navigate and communicate with people. The prototype has already enabled users to identify faces and obstacles more clearly than they have seen for years.

 

Within 18 months, RNIB hope to be able to revolutionize the lives of 1,000 people living with sight loss, providing the foundations to create a low-cost version with additional functionality for people with sight loss around the world. .

The International Publishers Association (IPA) has appointed Mark Bide as its special adviser on digital publishing, standards and accessibility strategy.

 

IPA Secretary General Jens Bammel said: “In the area of standards, metadata and infrastructure development, we need to provide leadership and strategic advice to our members. Mark has been a trusted expert and strategic visionary in this area for more than 20 years. His roles at digital consultancy Rightscom, industry standards body EDItEUR and the Publishers Licensing Society have given him a wealth of experience. IPA is delighted that we can count on his insight into the drivers of our digital future.”

 

He added: “Promoting accessibility is a strategic issue for publishing. Not only can technical improvements enable publishers to reach new customers; accessibility features can unlock the potential of digital publications in ways that mainstream consumers will value. Mark will play a major role in helping the publishing industry embrace accessibility.”

 

Bide said he was "delighted” to be able to support the IPA in these areas of activity.

 

He stated: “Helping the global publishing industry to understand how to change and what they can do to become great digital publishers, particularly how they can improve access to their publications for people with print disability, will be an exciting challenge.” More information is provided in the official press release.